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US changes mind about deporting Missouri woman

Alan Scher Zagier Associated Press

Updated:
06/23/2014 11:17:18 PM EDT

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Komdown "Dow" Boyer leaves with her lawyer, Jim Wyrsch, on Monday evening, June 23, 2014, at Lambert International Airport, after returning from Chicago where she was almost deported to Thailand in St. Louis. Dow Boyer was almost deported to Thailand earlier Monday after her conviction for stealing from her employer in Farmington. (AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, J.B. Forbes) EDWARDSVILLE INTELLIGENCER OUT; THE ALTON TELEGRAPH OUT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri woman who faced deportation to her native Thailand after losing her green card over a felony theft conviction will remain in the U.S. following a last-minute reversal by immigration officials.

Komdown "Dow" Boyer, who moved to the U.S. as a child after her mother married an American soldier, was convicted late last year of stealing money from the pizza restaurant where she had worked a decade, most recently as general manager. Boyer, 44, was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay about $51,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to felony theft. She said she needed the money for bills after her husband, a mechanic, had his legs crushed by a car.

Boyer has three sons, two of whom are in the U.S. military, and a 5-year-old daughter.

Defense attorney Javad Khazaeli told The Associated Press his client was taken suddenly on Monday from a Missouri county jail to an international flight preparing to leave Chicago's O'Hare International Airport before the decision was overturned less than one hour before the scheduled takeoff. Khazaeli, a former federal counter-terrorism prosecutor for the Department of Homeland Security, said the government has that discretion in some low-level offenses.

"It took awhile, but we got the case in front of the right people," said Khazaeli, who coincidentally was driving to St. Louis from his former home in Chicago Monday when Boyer's husband left a series of messages on his cellphone. "They exercised discretion at the last minute."

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Shawn Neudauer, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington, said the agency released Boyer from custody and placed her on supervised release while it "conducts a further review of her case."

Late Monday afternoon, Boyer arrived at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, where she was formally released and reunited with her husband, Justin. With tears in her eyes and carrying her belongings in a small mesh laundry bag, she gave her husband a long, deep hug before leaving the airport. The couple planned to return to their home in Farmington, Missouri, about 75 miles to the south. Boyer had been jailed since March in Lincoln County, Missouri, about 60 miles northwest of St. Louis and a two-hour drive from her home.

"When I saw we were going to the airport, I just started bawling," she said in an interview Monday night at her lawyers' downtown St. Louis offices. "It was a nightmare."

Many Farmington residents — including the owners of the Cici's Pizza where Boyer worked — rallied to stop her looming deportation with a social media campaign.

"I can't believe how much love and support I have from people I don't even know," she said. "I just want to go home and hold my kids."

Khazaeli said the legal case against Boyer continues as he negotiates with the local prosecutor to get her conviction vacated.

"This case is nowhere near over," the attorney said, adding that Boyer plans to change her status from legal permanent resident to naturalized citizen once the criminal case is resolved.

St. Francois County Prosecuting Attorney Jerrod Mahurin told the Daily Journal newspaper of Park Hills, Missouri that he will join Bower's attorneys in asking a judge to set aside her conviction, which both the prosecutor and the defense lawyers said was obtained without Boyer, who was represented by another attorney at trial, being fully informed that a guilty plea could mean a forced separation from her family.

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